Julián Alvarez has had a sensational start to life at Atlético de Madrid. With his brace against Bayer Leverkusen, the Argentinian striker made it 16 goals in his first 31 appearances at the Club.

If we take a look back at the Rojiblancos’ legends of this century, only Radamel Falcao and Luiz Suárez had a better goalscoring record after 31 games: 20 and 19 respectively. The Colombian forward arrived in Madrid in the summer of 2011 and ended his first season with Atleti on 36 goals, including twelve in the Europa League as the Rojiblancos were crowned champions. The Uruguayan, on the other hand, hit the back of the net 21 times in the 2020/21 season, helping the Club to the league title.

Alvarez’s current tally puts him ahead of some great players, however, such as: Fernando Torres, Diego Forlán and Antoine Griezmann, the Club’s current all-time leading goalscorer.

Here is a list of Atleti’s great forwards of the 21th century and their goal tallies after 31 games at the Club:

Radamel Falcao (20 goals)

Luis Suárez (19)

Julián Alvarez (16)

Diego Forlán (14)

Antoine Griezmann (13)

David Villa (13)

Álvaro Morata (13)

Fernando Torres (8)

Sergio Agüero (7)

Diego Costa (5)